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Chapter 3: Introduction to the Game
CHAPTER 3 Introduction to the Game 3.1 WHAT’S THE OBJECT OF “THE LEGACY OF SULLA,” EXACTLY? One of the major objectives for most players is to become the First Man In Rome (FMIR). This is the Roman who wields the most influence, dignity and power among all the leading figures of his time. There is no king in Rome; all men are considered equal. But some, of course, are more equal than others. The FMIR is ―first among equals‖ 3.2 GROUP STRUCTURE Here‘s a quick description of how The Legacy of Sulla (aka ―the group) works. 3.2.1 Group Administration The Legacy of Sulla (aka ―LOS‖) is administered by the Arbiter(s) and their Advisor(s). The Advisor(s) are experts in internet roleplay, Roman history, or other facets of the game. They advise the Arbiter(s) on what actions to take. The same people who serve as Arbiters and Advisors may also be playing in the game as regular Playing Characters (PCs). They will make it clear if their posts are official posts as Arbiters, usually by including the words ―as Arbiter‖ in the title of their post. 3.2.2 Relations Between Members Members of The Legacy of Sulla are expected to treat each other with courtesy, when out of character. Hostile or threatening communications when out of character are grounds for immediate exile. 3.3 THE LOS “PLAYING FIELD” If you look on our LOS home page, you‘ll see a number of different playing locations and ―threads‖ (regions where we make our posts).The action in the game takes place in a number of different venues: 3.3.1 Rome As you might expect, our main playing field is the Eternal City herself! Here is where you will find debates raging in the Senate, intrigues being launched in the various quarters of the City, bloody gladiatorial contests taking place…you name it, and it happens in Rome! The ―Roma‖ thread contains a number of sub-threads. 3.3.1.1 The Senate This is the thread where PC‘s (or their non-player character surrogates) debate the great issues of the day. You‘ll find some great speeches here, some rather nasty political confrontations…it‘s a very entertaining thread. It‘s also where Senators introduce legislative measures called Senatus Consulta (SC‘s). The Arbiters have the final say in, well…just about everything. 3.3.1.2 The Rostra The Rostra was a public podium, made from the bow of an enemy warship captured in battle. This is the place where citizens of all walks can make their voices heard. In our game, two threads (the Comitia Plebis and Comitia Populii) are used to make speeches from the Rostra, and to conduct various types of general voting among the plebs and citizenry. The Rostra is located near the Forum, so the crowds in the Forum were always within earshot of a hotshot orator bellowing from the Rostra. 3.3.1.3 The Forum The Forum is the heart of urban life in Rome. It‘s the place to go and do your people-watching, and to be seen. Politicians campaigned there, and attempted to sway the people to a variety ends. It is where news of great victories (and perhaps crushing defeats?) are heard, first as whispered rumors, then officially proclaimed. 3.3.1.4 Circenses Players post the details of our periodic festivals, plays, chariot races, and bloody gladiatorial bouts in this thread. 3.3.1.5 The Quaestiones (Courts) All trials are conducted in this thread. The courts are a great way for an aspiring politician to make a name for himself…and to get noticed. 3.3.1.6 The “Urbs” This is a catch-all thread. When people are in their homes, entertaining guests, or meeting with clients, those conversations will normally take place here. This is also where a great deal of the more ―romantic‖ storylines develop. 3.3.2 The Provinces Not all the action takes place in the City. Rome‘s reach was vast, and it only makes sense that the struggle to become First Man in Rome would extend far and wide. The various geographic regions of the known world are represented here. You can click on each named region to see what‘s going on there, or you can click on the appropriate region of the map found on our home page. Foreign wars take place in these threads. Governors and quaestors seek their fortunes and administer Roman justice here (though, far too often, one had to be sacrificed in order to look after the other…) 3.3.3 The Seas Commerce and naval warfare take place on the high seas and coastal zones. You won‘t find actual threads denoted as maritime regions. Instead, any action taking place at sea is posted in the thread of whatever the nearest province is. For example, a naval battle taking place somewhere south of Italy could be posted in either the Italia or Sicilia thread, depending on the closest land. 3.3.4 Religion One of the main ways to power and influence was through the exercise of the State Religion. Ambitious Romans furthered their careers by being appointed to powerful positions in Roman religion. Players seek the favor of the gods (and the people‘s approval of their apparent piety) by making various posts in the ―Temples‖ thread. 3.3.5 Influence and Power It all comes down to a struggle for influence and power. We measure these commodities several ways: the amount of money a PC has, his Gravitas, his Auctoritas, his Dignitas, and perhaps even by the number of legions he has at his beck and call. 3.4 ROMAN SOCIETY Here‘s a primer on Roman class structure. 3.4.1 Patricians vs. Plebeians: the Never-Ending Struggle Much of the history of the Roman Republic revolved around the ―struggle of the orders.‖ There was a continuous political and social tension between the Plebeian and Patrician class. By the time of the Late Republic (when our game takes place), many of these tensions had been resolved to a point where there was a certain amount of stable equilibrium. But the distinctions between these two classes remained, and everyone in Rome had better know their place in the pecking order. 3.4.2 Patricians: The Elite Aristocratic Class Patricians are the aristocratic blue bloods of Rome. Most Patrician families can trace their lineage back to the time of the kings…if not further. Many families, such as the Julii, can trace their ancestry back to Aeneas and the band of Trojans who fled burning Illium to found a new beginning in a sleepy little village on the banks of the Tiber. The Patricians considered themselves the guardians of the sacred traditions of the Romans (known as the Mos Maiorum, or the ―Way of the Elders.‖) They tended to be very conservative, socially and politically, though occasionally a Patrician would openly pander to the People in a naked attempt to curry favor with them. Plebeians were men ―of the people.‖ They cover a wide array of social and political circumstances, and formed the vast bulk of people who considered themselves to be Roman citizens. 3.4.3 Plebeians Come in Many Flavors! Some Plebeian families were almost as old as the finest Patrician families, and many an illustrious hero or Consul of the Roman People were of famous Plebeian stock. Many of these families were every bit as well-bred as their Patrician counterparts (and equally snooty about it)! 3.4.3.1 New Men Other members of the Plebeians were not of illustrious lineage; they had no famous men in their ancestry, but they were nonetheless determined to make their mark on Rome. These were the ―New Men.‖ They were often career soldiers who, through demonstrated military competence and a lifetime of discipline, showed a knack for leadership off the field of battle as well as upon it. 3.4.3.2 Knight Businessmen Others were Plebeians classified as Equestrians (or ―Knight Businessmen). These were men of the merchant class. They often shunned the traditional power game of a senatorial career because they knew what really mattered when it came to power: money, and lots of it! Because Senators were forbidden from engaging in trade, the Equestrian class often simply just didn‘t bother with politics. They had two options if they wished to play the Roman power game: amass a fortune, then keep their business dealings hidden while they pursued a career in the Senate. Or, they might find a financially strapped man with Senatorial ambitions and chose to ―sponsor‖ (manipulate like a puppet) him in his ascent up the Cursus Honorum. 3.4.3.3 Farmers and Artisans Rustic rural folk or hard-working craftsmen fell into this particular category of Plebs. They were just the salt-of-the earth Roman citizens who grew the food, powered the shops and forges, fought in the army, and voted in the elections. While players don‘t choose to be a mere plowboy in the game, some of their NPC associates may well be folks of this persuasion. And, as it turns out, they are an important voting block in the elections. 3.4.3.4 The Head Count The Capeti Censi (Head Count) were those plebs too poor to own their own modest farms. They were forced to live in the cities…and great gobs of them lived in the poorer sections of Rome (most notably the district known as the Subura). They lived their lives of squalor in crowded multistory apartment buildings (called insulae) in a hand-to-mouth existence. Their sole source of entertainment and relief from the drudgery of their daily lives were the games and festivals which dotted the Roman calendar. Wise Senators understood full well the power—and danger—of The Mob (as they were sometimes called). Perhaps their lot could be improved…and if doing so proved politically advantageous for the Senator in question, all the better! But one thing was certain: they must always be controlled. 3.5 GAME TIME The game runs on a compressed time line. We distinguish by game time and real time by using the phrase ―In Real Time‖ (IRT) to describe when we are referring to the real-world calendar. The LOS year consists of four IRT months. Each RT month is referred to as a Quarter, and covers 3 IRT months. At the end of the second and fourth quarter each game year, players will be required to file certain reports. A calendar will be made for each LOS year and posted for the players to view at the beginning of the in-game year. 3.5.1 The Roman Calendar vs. Our Modern One You‘ll notice in the game that we reckon our years using the annotation A.U.C. That‘s the Latin shorthand for Ab Urbe Condita (―from the founding of the City‖). Romans reckoned their history from its founding in 753 B.C., which was their zero year. Within the context of the game, players should use the A.U.C. date, but you‘ll see that the calendar on our main page lists the year in both A.U.C. and B.C. terms. (To do the conversion on your own, simply subtract 753 from the Current Roman year. Thus, 110 B.C. is 643 A.U.C. (753-110=643). Another important difference are the names of the months. LOS takes place several decades before the legendary Julius Caesar made his sweeping changes to the calendar, and well before calendar months were named after him (July) and his nephew Octavius (August). In our games, you‘ll see those months being called by their original names, Quintilis and Sextilis. 3.5.2 Reconciling Game Time with Real Time We're on a compressed timeline here at LOS, and our real-world lives might force us into periods of relative inactivity followed by other periods of frenzied posting. That means we may have to be multiple places seemingly at the same time in order to "get the job done." Just keep in mind that it's up to the PC himself to manage multiple story lines should he find himself in that situation. For example, a debate and vote in the Senate which would really take place over the course of an afternoon might stretch out to ten days of "in real life" (IRL). Likewise, a five minute chariot race may take a couple of days to play out completely on the boards. It's OK to be conducting multiple sets of business & intrigues in Rome, IF your player is actually in Rome to begin with! If your player is overseas in one of the provinces, he must honor the time delay involved in getting correspondence back and forth from the Eternal City, and vice a versa. For example, if a general achieves a great victory in battle in Parthia, even though all of us can read about immediately on the boards, those PC's actually in Rome wouldn't truly know of the happy turn of events until several game weeks later. Thus, an on-going Senatorial debate should not suddenly include news of the new victory unless sufficient game-time had elapsed to account for the time it would take a swift dispatch rider to arrive with the news. 3.6 TRAVEL The Romans had a great set of roads, but some regions were still much easier to travel than others. We can‘t depict all these variables accurately in our little game, so we use the following conventions: It takes one day IRT for a fast messenger to travel from one province to another. It takes two days IRT for a PC to travel from one province to another. It takes four days IRT for troops amounting to less than twenty thousand men to travel from one province to another. It also takes four days IRL for transports to cross a province or sea section. It takes six days IRT for troops amounting to more than twenty thousand men to travel from one province to another. 3.7 MAPS You‘ll find a number of maps scattered throughout the site. There‘s that map of the provinces on the LOS home page, of course. In the ―Finances‖ thread, you‘ll find a very useful map to use when moving by either land or sea. This is the map we use when we calculate movement rates of ships, bodies of troops, personal travel by PC‘s, etc. You‘ll also find some detailed maps of selected provinces included as links in various provincial threads. We obtain these maps from a variety of sources, but none is better than the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. That is one great reference volume! 3.8 USE OF DICE FOR DETERMINING VARIOUS OUTCOMES We rely on the ―Hamete Virtual Dice Server‖ (www.dicelog.com) for an accurate, impartial rendering of our rolls. You can check it out at https://dicelog.com/dice. 3.9 CHARTS AND TABLES We use a number of charts in conjunction with our electronic dice to determine a variety of outcomes: political, economic, military and inter-personal. Rest assured, however, the majority of things which happen in LOS are the result of PC‘s direct actions. The better you command an army, the higher the probability of victory. The more strenuously you argue a case in the courts, the higher the likelihood that the jury will see things your way. You get the idea. 3.10 THE HEAVY HAND OF THE ARBITERS In addition to our many other duties, the Arbiters monitor the content of the posts made at LOS for editorial content. If we see something inappropriate, technically incorrect, or having a minor grammatical flaw, we may exercise our right to edit your post directly, without first seeking your permission. For example, if we see the following sentence in a post on one of our LOS threads, we may feel compelled to edit it on a number of grounds: Gaius wents to the port of Ostia, where he boarded a submarine bound for the Egyptian city of Athens. Three problems pop out at us. We‘d probably just ignore the word ―wents,‖ but the fact that there‘s a blatant anachronism in the text along with a major geographical error, means we‘d probably step in with our red pen and make some corrections for the author. After we finish cringing, we would rewrite the sentence to read as follows: Gaius went to the port of Ostia, where he boarded a bireme bound for the Egyptian city of Alexandria. We‘ll try to keep our interference to a minimum, out of respect for your artistic creativity. But if something just screams at us to be fixed, well… 3.11 “KEEPING SCORE” This is a game, after all, and we need a method of keeping track of who‘s winning and losing. We use a number of ―metrics‖ to do this. Wealth is one obvious measurement, but the most important metric by far is ―Influence.‖ Influence can be thought of as one‘s political clout combined with popularity. We play fast & loose with the Roman term ―Diginatas.‖ In our game, Dignitas is the sum total of a player‘s influence. Dignitas is composed of two factors: Auctoritas and Gravitas. In a nutshell, Auctoritas is one‘s influence with the People. Gravitas is one‘s influence with the Senate. See Chapter 5 for a much more complete treatment of the subject. 3.11.1 Required Reports In order to keep the IPFT up to date, we‘ll need periodic reports from each player. You‘ll need to submit an update on your finances and influence to the Arbiters. You can do this through our sulla.wikia.com, or by using the downloadable blank spreadsheet (link found on the LOS main page) and sending it as an email attachment to sullas.game@gmail.com. 3.12 RECORD-KEEPING One of the things which the Arbiters need to do in order to keep the game running smoothly is to keep records on each of the players. This is done in a couple of ways. 3.12.1 Influence-Politics-Finance Tracker The Influence-Politics-Finance Tracker (IPFT) is spreadsheet which contains a wealth of useful information. There is data to be found here on each PC‘s current levels of wealth and influence, the number of votes they command in the Senate and Assembly, and where they stand with respect to their peers. There is also good info on the list of current magistrates, and the general lay of the land. Players should download a copy of the spreadsheet about once a month IRT to make sure they know the score, so to speak. There‘s a link to download the file which you can find on the LOS main page. You can also cut & paste this link in your browser: https://sites.google.com/site/sullaslegacy/game-data-player-stats/Influence-Politics-Finance.xls Periodic Player Status Report 3.12.2 Periodic Player Status Report (PPSR) The PPSR is a form you can use to submit your year-end report. Fill in the ―peach‖ colored blanks, and email it to sullas.game@gmail.com. If you prefer, you can establish a page for your PC at our wiki site and update your data there. Either way, however, you as a responsible player will be expected to keep your PC‘s status updated and current. Failure to do so will incur penalties. You can download the blank PPSR spreadsheet here: https://sites.google.com/site/sullaslegacy/game-data-player-stats/PPSR-Blank.xls The blank PPSR in MS Word format can be found here: https://sites.google.com/site/sullaslegacy/game-data-player-stats/PPSR-Word.doc 3.12.3 Sulla’s Wikia Site In addition to our main game site, we also have a Wiki page which you can find at sulla.wikia.com We use this site as a place where individual PCs can create info on their characters. More importantly, this is where you will maintain current information regarding your levels of influence and statistics on your wealth. You can find the data section for players at (cut & paste into your browser): http://sulla.wikia.com/wiki/Category:PC_Status 3.12.4 Need Help? Ask one of the current players in the game. They can mentor you through this process and help you to get set up. The Legacy of Sulla © Copyright 2011 Jim Sebastian